Sanders Blasts HUD for Turning Sandy Recovery into “Game Show”

(Far Rockaway, NY) - Senator James Sanders Jr. (D- Rochdale Village) has sent a letter to Secretary Shaun Donovan, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”) blasting HUD’s recent proposal to divert $1 billion or more of money designated for the rebuilding of the communities impacted by Hurricane Sandy into a nationwide competition for disaster resiliency projects. The money would come from funds diverted from the final $3.6 billion that HUD has to distribute for Sandy-related projects.

In the letter to Secretary Donovan, Senator Sanders stated, “Every day I witness my neighbors and constituents struggling to recover from the storm. Our communities are still in desperate need of rebuilding and recovery funds. It is a shame that our communities have been hit with the one-two punch of first being hit by a natural disaster and then receiving a second hit from the federal government as it turns the recovery of the area into a game of Wheel of Fortune. How dare the federal government pit communities across our nation that have been victims of natural disasters against each other.”